[146] Smyth’s Tour in the United States, London, 1784, i. 72. In 1748 Maryland had 98,357 free whites, 6,870 redemptioners, 1,981 convicts, and 42,764 negroes. See Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, i. 247.
[147] See above, vol. i. p. 16.
[148] At the famous meeting in the Tabernacle at New York, in May, 1850, when Isaiah Rynders and his ruffians made a futile attempt to silence Garrison, one of the speakers maintained “that the blacks were not men, but belonged to the monkey tribe.” William Lloyd Garrison: the Story of his Life, told by his Children, iii. 294. Defenders of slavery at that time got much comfort from Agassiz’s opinion that the different races of men had distinct origins. It was perhaps even more effective than the favourite “cursed be Canaan” argument.
[149] Bruce, Economic History, ii. 94. About 1854 (I am not quite sure as to the date) it was reported in Middletown, Conn., that the “horrid infidel,” Rev. Theodore Parker, had, on a recent Sunday in the Boston Music Hall, brought forward sundry cats and dogs and baptized them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!!! I shall never forget the chill of horror which ran through the neighbourhood at this tale of wanton blasphemy. In 1867 I found the belief in the story still surviving among certain persons in Middletown with a tenacity that no argument or explanation could shake. The origin of the ridiculous tale was as follows: The famous abolitionist, Parker Pillsbury, made a speech in which he quoted what the lady said to Godwyn, that “he might as well baptize puppies as negroes.” In passing from mouth to mouth the report of this incident underwent an astounding transformation. First the speaker’s name was exchanged for that of another famous abolitionist, the strong and lovely Christian saint, Theodore Parker; and then the figure of speech was developed into an act and clothed with circumstance. Thus from the true statement, that Parker Pillsbury told a story in which an allusion was made to baptizing puppies, grew the false statement that Theodore Parker actually baptized cats and dogs. A great deal of what passes current as history has no better foundation than this outrageous calumny.
[150] Bruce, op. cit. ii. 96-98.
[151] Hening’s Statutes, ii. 260.
[152] Hening, iii. 333-335.
[153] For many of these details concerning slavery I am indebted to Bruce’s Economic History of Virginia, chap, xi.,—a book which it would be difficult to praise too highly.
[154] Bruce, op. cit. ii. 107.
[155] Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia, London, 1705, part iv. pp. 36-39. The historian was son of Major Robert Beverley mentioned above, on pages 109-114 of the present volume.